US (AFR) : Listen to what the AI industry’s hype is hiding...

 

Tech giants and Wall Street are fueling an AI spending frenzy that could leave working people paying for another financial disaster. Companies are pouring enormous sums into data centers and borrowing heavily to sustain spending that far exceeds what they earn from AI products and services. Their financial backers are helping spread the risks throughout the economy. Speculative data center debt is being repackaged and sold to pension funds, retirement funds, university endowments, and other institutional investors. Private equity firms have also loaded life insurers with risky debt, exposing policyholders to potential losses. People who never agreed to bankroll the AI boom could still suffer when those bets unravel. Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and Open Markets Institute examine these dangers in our new report, Brace for Impact: Protecting People and the Economy When the AI Bubble Bursts. We expose risky and opaque financial arrangements fueling the bubble, explain how losses could spread, and lay out concrete steps policymakers can take to protect people. The ingredients for a serious crisis are already in place. Yet the Trump administration and federal financial regulators are weakening safeguards as these risks grow. Congress and regulators must demand financial transparency, curb reckless lending, and protect retirement savings before more of our economic security becomes tied to this speculation. Listen to the report and share it with others who need to hear this warning. You can also download the full report on the same page. LISTEN AND SHARE Producing research like this is a central part of how AFR takes on concentrated financial power. We investigate complicated financial practices, trace who profits and who bears the risks, and develop policy recommendations that give elected leaders concrete ways to act. We put that work into the hands of members of Congress, other elected officials, and their staff, as well as industry professionals and journalists at financial and trade publications. That helps challenge industry talking points, shape public coverage, and turn evidence of financial danger into demands for stronger protections. Our report calls for tougher oversight of banks and other financial firms, an end to giveaways inflating the AI bubble, and safeguards against shifting speculative losses onto everyday investors. If a crisis hits, federal assistance must prioritize workers, households, and communities. The firms and financiers that profited from the bubble must face accountability for unlawful conduct. Your support helps sustain the research and advocacy needed to carry those demands into the halls of power. We need the resources to expose dangerous financial practices and fight for policies that protect consumers, investors, and the broader economy. Contribute $5 or more today to fund AFR’s research and advocacy to protect working people from Wall Street’s AI gamble. Let’s keep fighting for financial justice. -Maya Maya Jenkins (she/her) Senior Policy Analyst Americans for Financial Reform. Support the campaign

Americans for Financial Reform